entouragesophia

For eight seasons, 'Entourage' has been a fun, breezy buddy comedy about a group of childhood friends living the good life in Hollywood. It's been a good time to watch, despite the fact that everything always works out for the guys in the end, which often led the show to hastily resolve season-long conflicts and gloss over tension between the characters.

But last night's series finale was dripping with more gloss than usual. In fact, it was all gloss. In one of the most baffling, problematic half-hours of TV I've ever seen, everything worked out for everyone -- except the audience. We were left feeling cheated over rushed catharsis, a love story that the show didn't bother to show us and characters that reconciled without ever earning it.

The whole thing revolved around an allegedly torrid love affair between Vince and Sophia, the Vanity Fair reporter who'd interviewed him several weeks before and adamantly refused his advances on the grounds that she's a serious journalist who doesn't date her subjects.

But, as we know by now, Vinny Chase's charm knows no bounds, and they fell madly in love with each other and decided to get married in Paris after hanging out for just 24 hours. All of which would have been fine, if 'Entourage' hadn't asked its audience to just take the show's word for it.